Page 56 of The Duke of Deceit

He lifted her hand to his mouth and placed a lingering kiss against her palm. The soft caress of his lips shot up her arm and made her breasts feel suddenly heavy.

“Then how about this?” he murmured. He swept his hand along her inner thigh and up—

Her breath caught as his fingers finally found her aching core. She tensed against his hand, only to relax when he began to gently caress her in long, smooth strokes along the seam between her legs.

“Is this what you craved, Jessamyn?” He nuzzled his mouth against her temple. “My hand on you like this?”

“Yes.” She choked back a whimper of desire. Yet his teasing fingers only heightened the throbbing ache inside her just beyond his fingertips.

She buried her face against his neck. Her entire attention was focused at his fingertips and the way he teased them against her. Tender and slow, agonizingly gentle, he delicately caressed her outer folds as if he were afraid she might stop him even now. But there wasn’t an ounce of willpower anywhere inside her that wanted to stop this encounter. His warm touch was too wonderful to deny herself, the goodness she’d finally glimpsed in him too much to resist.

A groan escaped him. “You’re so warm and wet…”

Embarrassment crashed over her. Her body had betrayed her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

He cut her off with a kiss, then explained against her mouth, “That’s a good thing.”

“It is?” She didn’t know if she could believe that.

“Averygood thing. Because it lets me do this.”

Before the question could rise on her lips, his finger slipped inside her.

“Lucien!” She tensed at the unexpected invasion, and for a moment, she forgot to breathe.

But he didn’t stop his caresses. Instead, he stroked deeply inside her. Every smooth sink of his finger into her tight warmth made her heart stutter, only for fear to grip it with every slow retreat that he’d changed his mind. What he was doing to her was simply torturous…and absolutely exquisite.

“Is that better? Does it soothe the ache as you wanted?”

She shook her head against his shoulder. Not at all! If anything, it had the exact opposite effect. Her entire body felt as if electricity were balling up low in her belly now, and his touch only inflamed it.

“Then how about this?” He slid a second finger inside with the first.

The wide stretch of her intimate folds as he filled her brought a moan to her lips. Her thighs were spread open wide now, shamelessly so, and she simply didn’t care, not with his caresses stroking so deliciously inside her, not with the spicy taste of his lips once more claiming hers…and certainly not when a mounting wave of pleasure began to lap at her toes and climb up her limbs toward the throbbing ache at her core. She trembled uncontrollably, her hands frantically grasping his shoulders and her toes curling in her shoes, as she tried to fight off the inexplicable urge to…to…oh, she had no idea what exactly! But she felt it sweeping toward her with the speed of a runaway team of horses.

His thumb flicked against the hard little nub buried deep in her folds, and her hips bucked against his hand, bringing his fingers deeper into her warmth, spreading her even wider. He ground the heel of his hand hard against that most sensitive place—

She cried out as a wave of pleasure broke over her, swamping her helplessly beneath its power. She clung to him, breathless and boneless, as she fought to catch her breath. But she had no strength to do anything other than melt against him and absorb the incredible sensations that sped through her with the rapid pounding of her heart. Her fogged mind barely registered the loss of him as he slowly withdrew his fingers from her warmth or how his arms shook as they encircled her and pulled her against him.

But she felt the brush of his lips against her temple, heard him whisper her name so lovingly… His tenderness nearly undid her, and she squeezed her eyes shut against their sudden stinging.

She should have been ashamed of her body’s reaction to his touch, but she simply couldn’t find a drop of remorse anywhere inside her. Except…

Except that she could feel his hands carefully pulling her shift and stays back into place, could feel his fingers buttoning her bodice and straightening her dress.

Her heart lurched into her throat. Their encounter couldn’t be over—not so soon! She’d barely had any of him to herself, this man she now knew possessed goodness beneath his black exterior. Every tender kiss and selfless caress he’d given her only proved to her foolish heart how wrong she’d been about him. The very last thing she wanted to do now was part from him.

But when she lifted her head from his shoulder and searched his face, she knew that was exactly what was happening. He’d stoked that yearning need inside her with his kisses, then satiated it with his touch, and now he was putting an end to their encounter. Yet her aching body told her there were so many more pleasures they could share, so many more wonderful sensations that accompanied the full joining of bodies.

What greeted her in his expression, though, wasn’t a desire for that.

It was regret.

Dropping her gaze to his chest, she loosened her arms around his neck and lowered her hands to his lapels. She suddenly felt very cold and strangely alone, even though he stood right in front of her. “Are you sorry you touched me like that?”

“God no.” He lifted her chin so he could place a lingering kiss to her lips. He hesitated before asking, “Are you?”

She twisted his lapels in her hands. “I regret…that you stopped.”